This sounds like one of the most epic convention fails of all time -- but who expected it would come out of "My Little Pony" fandom?

According to The Daily Dot, last month's LasPegasus Unicon in Las Vegas was "botched" -- saddled (if you would excuse the pun) with claims of fraud, theft, bounced checks, "fake money," and attendees being kicked out of hotels. If this is all true, it sounds like the Bernie Madoff of fan conventions.

And, as evidenced in a tweet written in response to a now-deleted Facebook message by the con organizers, Twilight Sparkle was pisssssssed:

An editorial at Derpy Hooves News referred to Unicon as "the greatest convention disaster in pony fandom history," the gory details you can read in the Daily Dot article plus Reddit, Tumblr, and this painfully long Facebook thread. But basically, it seems like the con organizers overshot the projected attendance, and when too little attendees actually arrived, all hell broke loose -- resulting in a lack of ready cash, possibly unpaid guests, hotel nightmares (again, please excuse the pun), and so much more.

The apparent brouhaha surrounding Unicon brings up the issue of fans creating conventions and other somesuch events and stuff, when they may-or-may-not have the business savvy to pull it off. I'm always hearing about new theoretical conventions, and while some sound great, others sound as shady as hell. One such unnamed "niche" con, which I believed never got off the ground, tried to tack on a website-designing service as part of the conditions for guests to attend. This was a service, I believe, the guest had to pay for. What-the-what-now?

Is this the end of Brony conventions? Or can the indomidable spirit of the Ponies get past this hiccup? And will tales of the Unicon situation scare off other celebrity guests from attending new and unproven conventions?